LeftLibertarian Rants

These are the rants of an anonymous Left-leaning Libertarian. Libertarian views are generally socially liberal but fiscally conservative. I view George Bush as the anti-Libertarian, he is socially conservative and fiscally irresponsible. Unless you are a very wealthy person, religious fundamentalist, or a racist redneck, I cannot understand why a person would support George Bush.

Friday, April 01, 2005

Terri Schiavo bitch-slapped Tom DeLay

Tom Delay has been suffering through all sorts of ethics problems. And the word is that he could get indicted in Texas any day now. And then there was the recent disclosure about donations from foreigners and Indian tribes to pay for his recent trips.

But then, Terri Schiavo is 'delivered as a gift from God' to Tom DeLay. (His own words.) So Tom DeLay decides to use Terri Schiavo to spew about this 'culture of life' issue in order to distract attention from his many ethical failures (or is it just plain corruption?) and solidify his conservative support. So Tom DeLay gets up on the soapbox and starts screaming about how liberals are killers and all that crap . . . but it all backfired on him.

1) The GOP memo talking about how the Schiavo tragedy was a 'great political issue' surfaced in the press.2) Then Tom DeLay gets recorded during a private speech with Christian conservatives wherein he talked about how 'God delivered terri schiavo' to them.3) Polls come out showing that even conservative Republicans were angered with the Congressional activism into this judicial decision concerning a private family medical matter.4) A story breaks out that in 1988, Tom DeLay himself decided that his father should be allowed to die. That's right, he decided that his own father's medical chart should say 'do not ressuccitate'. And the decided not to allow them to use dialysis on his father.5) And the story about Tom DeLay's father discloses even more hypocrisy . . . after his father's death, Tom DeLay participated in lawsuit against a company that made bearings that his father used in a home-built tram system that caused his father's injuries. Yep, one of these 'tort reform' proponents participated in his own (meritless?) lawsuit against a corporation that happened to make a part in some home-made tram system that failed.

Bush's Social Security 'plan' is margin investing for retirement

I don't fully understand Bush's "plan" . . . because Bush refuses to disclose any detailed plan! That's right, Bush is trying to sell us something without telling what it is . . . that's pretty dishonest, IMHO. Of course, this is the guy that said he would not use American troops for nation building and that

But, from what I understand of Bush's social security 'plan' is that he wants to borrow *trillions* of dollars, put that money into private accounts and then invest that money into the stock market. But who has to pay back those trillions of dollars? Well us Americans, the very same ones who are getting those private accounts. So, Bush’s big social security plan is to have us borrow money and then invest that money. There is a term for doing that; it is called investing on margin.

Investing on margin is a risky strategy. It allows one to leverage their investment such that if they make money, they'll make more money than they normally would. However, if you lose money, you lose more money that you normally would. I've invested on margin occasionally . . . but a lot of people would never do it because of the risk (and these are people that accept the risk of investing in the stock market). But ask any financial person if investing on margin for retirement is a good idea . . . they'll say you are nuts. In fact, you ARE NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO INVEST ON MARGIN IN IRA & 401(k) ACCOUNTS.

So, can someone please explain to me why they think that Bush's social security plan (that is effectively investing on margin) is a good idea?

I am not at all against investing retirement money into the stock market. Like many people, I have thousands of dollars investment for retirement in 401(k) and IRA accounts. But I am against borrowing money to invest in the stock market for retirement. That is just stupid.